Legal Commentary

One More Time: Policy and Politics

By Big Tent Democrat

John Cole writes:

[M]uch of our politics has devolved into this kind of nonsense. We don’t actually care what policies are enacted, we care how they are enacted. Did Obama stick it to the Republicans? Was he angry enough with BP? Is he showing enough emotion? Can he “connect” with the white voter and “joe-sixpack?” Is he throwing the base “a bone?” Did he say “climate change” and use the right code words? Was he “friendly” enough to Israel?

I wish it would all stop, but the idiocy of the conservative right is matched by the progressive left in this regard.

(Emphasis supplied.) This is an inaccurate attack on the "progressive left." One can argue that they have been unrealistic about the "politics" of what is possible, but if one group has been consistently policy focused, it has been the progressive left. Many (John Cole among them) have spent an inordinate amount of time yelling at the progressive left for being too focused on the "perfect" policy and not sufficiently appreciating the "good" policies the Obama Administration has achieved. Cole's latest critique is not consistent with the past criticisms of the progressive left letting the "perfect be the enemy of the good."

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 21, 2010 (boomark / email).